Mandy and I went to assist with the recovery of a collection of media images, still and moving. The actual storage was chaotic and movement in the premises tricky. We are hoping to discover what we think are missing sections of the collection but time is of the essence.  Another 60k slides or so and 70 hours of cine are safe.

We are making the most of the fine weather in the south we tomorrow Worcester and Hereford, then Cardiff and Newport plus my truck day Roos on Wye, Monmouth, Avonmouth. Cum hell or high water Friday will be in the garden with 29deg.

The last films from our trip to Essex and East Anglia / Nth Lincs are now all on the PMP shop. The weather has been awful for many weeks in the North West , it is still wet and windy. With better weather once more down south I'm contemplating hitting South Wales at the end of the coming week if not perhaps the South Midlands. 

I'm also trying to clear my editing space ready for the new scanner for OTA, as I stopped after a few were complete it was a pain as I have part finished work all over the place. I don't want to send in the bull dozers on my dioramas until I'm ready and able to rebuild. Whatever I do it needs to be before the contracting of my hands gets too bad.

Here are the latest film releases

To give a bit of comparability all the photo DVD s have now been deleted as they are all available to Friends of PMP which can be joined via the shop with options for 1,2 or 3 years. The amount of photos is around 158,000 at present but when I'm back on top of current releases I'll get a lot more loaded. I had another exciting Online Video film to load in the next week at the OTA Youtube channel edges up to 1000 subscribers and depending on the hit rates we should soon get it monetised. 

I've also taken off the shop the pre order forms for Brilliant Buses models. These are still being created in China but I really have no idea how they will sell them as they can't receive payments from UK to China. Perhaps they'll end up coming from Hong Kong which still has many different financial possibilities.

I'm considering shutting down the PMP EBay shop as they charge so much for each sale and we sell at a loss anyway. A true cost would probably be £30 a DVD. I can't even alter prices without deleting items. Is there anyone who really needs something EBay gives that the PMP shop doesn't. Also our shop has the whole range whereas EBay has only about 50%.

Between all the many routine jobs I've now completed 33 4mm scale people to a higher quality. Next will come the bull dozer to the next two sections of my dioramas. The bus station will have more space per bay, unauthentic but the only way to see the buses and people, reality in scale doesn't always work best, compromises are often needed.

It really has been a hectic week, I'm now editing the last couple of films from the Essex and East Anglia plus Boston trip which now seems a long way back. Anyway I did a bit in the garden before the rain set in. Now a look at some of the buses we saw on that trip.

For those who cannot wait here is the next Buses advert for PMP

Between editing the films from last week of Essex and East Anglia plus Boston, Lincs and myriad household chores I'm working on my 00 scale figures trying to make them more life like as I start to tackle the next section of dioramas which was created in the pandemic. Now I find it all a bit like a toy set so I try to create little scenes and groups of people rather than individuals plonked all over. This was one of my first tries this week but it has extended since then. Really want to master the rear view of queues which will enhance the slightly rebuilt Wrexham bus station which is able to represent any part of the country but at present is true to Wrexham. However scale and realism does need compromise as trying to put buses in gaps true to reality makes it look very close to the buses ( which it was) and viewers can't really experience all the scenes. Once they are surrounded by buildings and buses etc I hope they blend on ok with my 1950-60s scenes

Today saw the official launch of The Friends of PMP, initially this gives the benefit of access to the private PMP Flickr channel with a little over 150,000 images. This will continue to climb, first be loading past archives then be adding as we explore. There are buses, lorries, trams, trolleybuses, and some cars, tractors, steamers, locations, towns,  etc. There are three durations of monthly charges which are paid annually in advance. The longer you pay for the less the cost. The views are not watermarked but cannot be reposted, sold or shared, if this restriction is ignored a retrospective licence is £500 per image. They are also available for commercial use under the PMP commercial licence. 

The initial offerings may have glitches in location given or time frame but most should tie in correctly. All the previous guidance on our images still applies, so generally there are 1970s and older from friends and retention of collections like my Irish and Crosville scenes. Generally though they cover the last 25 years.

New items on the PMP shop today

Brassed off a bit with Showbus, not the cancellation but putting the onus on people to remember how they made the stand payment and having to send bank details, I've even offered for them to carry it over to next year, I'm so busy, really on the brink, really glad it has off the list but why should I have to jump hoops to get my money back.

With another clutch of DVD orders I'm again racing to stand still with another weeks worth of filming to be edited and nearly a month of films needing DVD covers. No feedback yet on the Friends of PMP launched at very low key yesterday. I'll hammer it once past 1st July the official launch date. Another dull cloudy day in Cheshire, still no sign of anything  other than humid days and nights with no sun at all. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get a chance to make some film covers and get them on the shop. I will of course go back to the 1996-97 truck films at some stage.

We had our anniversary pub dinner tonight. A memorable concert yesterday, Mandy took some pictures on her phone but we don't know how to get them downloaded, best shop is to send them to my phone them I'll email them to save and post. Why is everything so damned complicated with these silly computer phones. Worst thing ever invented, wish I was back with my old 'brick'.

Having achieved the promised 150,000 on our Flickr website I've quietly launched the 'friends of PMP'  which at present has the main advantage with access to all the photos from my collection which I've loaded, many more to be added and a process which will grow each week.

It is our 51st wedding anniversary today, we were at the Bridgewater Hall this afternoon where the RNCM symphony orchestra played to a packed audience as part of a weekend of culture in Manchester. It was Mahler's 2nd the Resurrection symphony. 10 minutes standing ovation, what a way to end the academic year.

Mowed the lawns so we can sit out tomorrow, if the weather carries on as warm and sunny as it still is. actually BBC said it would be cloudy all day and much cooler. 

To round off some more piccies from the last weeks travels

The weather in Cheshire is the same as ever, damp, windy, cloudy, cool - oh but global warming ever hit the North West. We are wading our way through myriad DVD orders. Another look at our travels over the past two weeks, this time to Felixstowe Port and also our August Buses advert.